I’m sure she’s got a great personality. That centaur is a really good judge of character.

Centaurs, despite having an incredible amount of competition, are clearly in the running for “stupidest man/creature hybrid” award, if not at the very top of the list. It’s tough to say, and I imagine it’s a very subjective thing. Maybe you really like horses. Maybe the idea of a half man, half horse is appealing to you? I can’t say for sure, all I know is that, to me, it seems absolutely ludicrous. How do these two disparate things come together to make one biological monstrosity? How, exactly, does it work?

I think this is the hardest part for my mind when it comes to mythology. Somewhere in my brain I just want things to work and the physiology of centaurs and other hybrid creatures just doesn’t fit. Does this thing eat grass? Does it eat food at all? It looks like it would have two stomachs. How many lungs does it have? What is its brain like?

Mythology doesn’t have a lot to say on the particulars of centaur organs and the like, belonging, as they do to antiquity, but I can’t help but wonder.

Centaurs and their female counterparts, the Centaurides, are creatures of Greek imagination that have stood the test of time, for one reason or another. Surprisingly, there is some interest in the symbolism and meaning of the centaur race as they are used in the mythology and literature of ancient Greece. Representing a physical duality, both man and horse, the Centaur also represents a spiritual and intellectual dualism: that of being trapped between the civilized and the barbaric. To the ancient Greeks (as well as the myriad civilizations that co opted the imagery in later years) they were seen as being untamed and wild, like the many horses that ran across Europe, yet there persisted an element of civilization, the human part of these man-horses, allowing them to be identified, and even sympathized with, by very human readers and storytellers. Centaurs could fashion weapons, and could make war, they could also speak and tell stories, love and lose. They, like some other hybrid creatures, made for interesting and moving figures in stories and art as well as enemies for heroes.

It’s not altogether surprising that hybrid creatures that lacked the upper body of humans were less inspiring and less identifiable to human readers in ancient Greece as in other lands. The minotaur, a tragic figure when one really considers it, is shown very little sympathy and not exactly painted in a positive light. Even the harpies, which classically are depicted as having only human heads, are not seen as worthy of human interest beyond the terror they induce.

If you plan to have some kind of human-animal hybrid baby, you’d best make sure you get the proper half of the body looking right.

Fortunately the Centaurs are constructed the right way up. Now we can relate to their problems, like accidentally checking out the wrong sort of butts.

Modern tragic figure meet your ancient greek equivalent. He suffered to bring light and warmth to all mankind for no personal gain. You suffer so that your frat might get disastrously drunk at next friday’s rager. You two should have a lot to talk about.

The issue presented here is one of psychological blinders and a lack of personal perspective. In our minds, our problems loom large and unconquerable a great deal of the time. We look at our lives and how difficult they are in the context of the situations we face being the only problems in the entire world. This applies to everyone at one time or another, myself included. The problem, then, is finding it in ourselves to realize that we live relatively comfortable lives. Naturally, life is not perfect for anyone. Even the billionaire can suffer in his own way. It’s simply a matter of scale. How bad are your problems really? How bad is it that some girl or guy you dated for a couple of weeks broke up with you? Is it as bad as say…starving to death in a dry, barren wasteland? How about having your liver torn out by an eagle day after day for 30,000 years? No? Then maybe you can lighten up a bit.

When it comes to massive and repeated suffering, no one does it better than good ol’ Prometheus. Solely responsible for giving humanity the gift of fire (as well as actually creating humankind), Prometheus was punished by the always reactionary Zeus in a serious way. Chained to a rock in the Caucasus Mountains, he was tortured by having an eagle tear out and devour his liver day after day. Being a Titan, (those fellows that came before the gods) Prometheus was naturally immortal and his liver regenerated each morning. For thousands of years, Prometheus was tormented until Zeus finally allowed him a chance at redemption. Asking an important question that only Promtheus had the answer to, Zeus sought to see if the Titan would give in to his rule. He did, and Zeus sent his son Hercules to slay the eagle and free Prometheus.

You would think that after such a lengthy torturing, Prometheus would be resentful, but there isn’t a thing about him in greek mythology after his freedom is attained. One can only hope that he is somewhere pleasant, perhaps a nice beach sipping mixed drinks and enjoying immortality and the fruits of his labors.

Hopefully he can look on us, the beings he helped to create, and smile from time to time.

There are people in this world that can be incredibly depressing when they want to be. Depressing enough to bring down Death himself.

What are they even doing on that train? I wonder. It can’t be anything good.

It’s been a while since we last saw Death in the strip. He’s being considerably less menacing and he is (I’d like to believe) much better drawn. Being a comic about mythology and monsters (for the most part) we see all sorts of characters coming in and out of the strip. Its hard, sometimes, because a few are personal favourites (damnit, Odin and Satan!) but the jokes don’t always work out. I just have to write them as they come along. Maybe we’ll see some of those guys again soon.

In other news, the site is almost done. We now have a full archive up to browse at your leisure. I’m trying to figure out what to do with the sidebars now. I thought about project wonderful ads, but they’re so ugly. Quite the conundrum.